Baseball season is here, so where are the games?

Amazing what a difference a year makes. It was in the 70s this day one year ago. There were only precipitation issues — cold was not a factor — for the baseball and softball season.

Ah, but such is not the same this year. It has been cold, it has been wet and it has been miserable.

Many coaches are concerned that the early season battles outside of conference play will not be taking place and their teams will be thrown into the league fire untested.

So much for global warming.

The annual baseball-softball issue will be coming out next week. It was looking like there weren’t going to be any games played before it hit the newsstands. Such wasn’t the case as Tri-Point braved the cold and wind and played a softball game against Fisher.

As far as production of the issue is concerned, it’s rather nice to be able to have it completed before many games are played. Like basketball, the baseball-softball season usually starts before there is a chance to get all the coaches interviewed and the team photos taken or acquired, etc.

That means that some of the information that was accurate at the time of the interview may have been altered by the time the previews came out.

It appears likely that the only discrepancies will be minor — mainly that the coaches who were swaying between players vying for a starting job have been selected.

Something else about the cold and wet weather this preseason is not being able to get outside. Some of the teams have braved the cold and have done some throwing outside and maybe some other stuff. But there hasn’t been any of them that I’m aware of that has been able to take infield practice and get a full outdoor workout, as of this writing.

It is unusual, but I recall my senior year when we didn’t get outside that first week except to throw, and then it was still in the 30s and all we did was throw. The hitting and the fielding were done inside, as was a lot of conditioning.

I don’t know what our pitchers did in preparation. I wasn’t a hurler and when they were going their routines, the infielders were doing something else. This much is known, there wasn’t a mound to throw off of.

We ended up with some decent pitchers, though not what we could have had. As it turned out I believe three of them threw in college.

Page 2 of 2 - The best pitcher in my class, however, was not on the team. In fact, by the time I was a senior, the kid wasn’t in school. Too many outside influences ruined what could have been a tremendous career for a left-hander with velocity and three very good pitches.

He was the No. 2 starter as a freshman on a regional championship team. The ace on that team, a junior, ended up at Illinois State, where he eventually became a top pitcher for Duffy Bass.

That’s the sad thing about high school sports — seeing kids who have all the talent in the world throw it away.

Hopefully Mother Nature will find the time to bring us warmer weather soon. Even though it is nice to be able to get a preview out before the season gets going, it would be nicer to get the season going.